Speaker points are subjective measures of speaking ability. They are assigned based on both argumentation and speaking style. Unfortunately, debaters too often rely on their evidence to perform their persuasion for them. Work on your speaking style and avoid these speaking Don'ts in order to improve your speaker points!

The Top Ten Speaking Don’ts:

10. Waving hands and arms. Don’t expend all of your energy waving your arms around like you’re trying to fly away. It’ll make you out of breath and means your hands are further from your flow, pen, and evidence.

9. Double breath/gulp. Breathing once works just fine. All of those unnecessary breaths are seconds that add up.

8. Spit face. Lick your lips every once in a while to avoid looking like a rabid animal.

7. Tapping foot. Debates are not concerts. Keep your feet still to save energy and prevent noise that interferes with the speech.

6. Oscillating volume. Finding a rhythm is good, but rhythmic volume change is distracting. Emphasize tags, important arguments, and key phrases—not every third sentence.